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That's zero ATM fees, zero balance requirements, and zero time spent waiting for your paycheck to direct deposit because you can receive it up to two days early. Open your account with just $25 and see how big zero can be. Apply online today at penfed.org/freechecking. Early direct deposit eligibility may vary between pay periods and timing of payers funding. To receive any advertised product, you must become a member of PenFed and insured by NCUA. [MUSIC] It's the five-year plan podcast and we look back over Palace's festive period with two games to review. Bournemouth and Swansea. We also look forward to Chelsea at home in the new year and talk about our favorite moment from 2015. It's been a pretty good year for Palace, but let's do it. [MUSIC] Yes, this is the five-year plan podcast, last pod of 2015. Oh, really? I thought you were doing a test there. Is that the actual intro? That's it. We start with rolling. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes. Mixed motions from the hair. Kevin saying yes, you're saying no. It's last pod of 2015. You're not? It's not been a brilliant year. It's been probably the best year in Palace's history. Football-wise, it's been fantastic, but 2015 can do one. Oh, OK. Basically. Yeah, football-wise has been lovely. That's what he's talking about. Football? We are. Hurry. Before that, we've got to talk about our sponsors. I've already had to sit through Kevin's stand-up. I feel like I needed therapy there after two. But no, go and see Kevin show when it comes back on. Oh, the show was great. The show was great. The show was great. Yeah, I know. His life was good. He'd done another tour. Anytime thing? No, maybe. That's it. I'm in a bare mood after what he just said. Right. We are sponsored by Vector Printing for your print and embroidery needs. Go to Vector.co.uk and that's Vector with it. Hey! Yes, we had a very nice Christmas. Thank you, J.D. I'm going to get to that. I'm doing the sponsors. I'll get to that. Oh. My word. We're also sponsored by JCIS, the Global Research and Brand Consultancy from South London, run by a Palace fan. Visit JC-IS.com. I believe we also have a new sponsor this week, the Patrick Bamford Apology Company. Oh, God. Yeah. We will get to that. Definitely. Yeah. That's definitely going to be one of our things to cover. But did you guys have nice Christmases? Yes, right. I was getting to love Christmas, you know. You were there for most of it. I was. Yeah. It seems like you shaved quite a lot of my Christmas. I invaded your Christmas. Well, he was starting to ruin my Christmas now while asking for a tea cocktail. It's not a cocktail, but it's got two things in it. I guess that does kind of make it a cocktail. It's normal to you in a little bit of all grey. It's fine. Which I would have shown you to add in the hails. Nothing wrong with all grey. It's a little bit. I mean, you know you've got someone who's been ticked. You've got someone who's been tickly, staunch about their working class, really. It's fine and shame, personally. It's having an old grey in the kitchen. Well, you know, I'm very proly of the nail. It has to keep the avocados hidden under the floorboards. Right. It's tough to get them from the chemistry though. No. Thanks for the tea. It's very nice. Okay. So, Palace. We've had two games since the last pod, actually. Yes. About which I think we all confidently predicted two wins. And lots of goals. We did. Exactly. And both were Neil, Neil, drawers. Both games we had no Conor Wickham and no Janik Balassie. And that's like goals. It's only two injuries, but did those injuries and the games of Christmas shine a light on the fact that maybe Oscar isn't quite as deep enough as we think it is. Well, I have to declare something here. I'm afraid I don't recall much about this ones again. I know it's not a lot to recall, but it was the combination of about five and a half days of drinking. So, I quite enjoyed it. Yes, I think I don't think anybody, certainly born with game, I don't think anybody thought there wouldn't be goals. I genuinely thought we would score two or three, maybe you could see. And we did. We have wondered what life would be like without Janik, and I think he turned out to be a really big loss, just because of his energy, not to stop from, but all over the picture. We've been struggling for goals anyway, even with Janik in the team, and we know we're struggling for goals, and that'll be rectified probably in the summer rather than now. But yeah, two of them are big misses. Cabayo was a big miss first half against Bournemouth. We can't afford to lose three or four quality players to support that. I mean, it's an interesting stat that I saw on Twitter earlier from Hopkins looking to kill one. He said, "I know he's a great Palace blog and Twitter account," and he said, and I'm sure it's true. I've not verified yet, but I'm sure it's true. OK. Connor Wickham has played nine Premier League games for Palace, in which we've scored 14 goals. And in the 10 that he's missed, he's scored only six goals. I mean, it's been quite a mile this season, obviously you're talking small sample sizes, and he's not, obviously he's scored a lot of goals himself. He's only got the one penalty that he got up at stake. But it certainly just seems like there's something not quite there when he's not playing. I mean, there's none of our other strikers appear to be able to play that mobile sort of number nine, who roves about in the way that he does and links up play and make sure that we play further out of the pitch in the manner that he does. And albeit that, you know, completely take care of his point, he won't score a lot of goals. And perhaps if Palace really want to kick on into the top six, they'd have to find someone who does both. I mean, it's certainly, I think, Markson, I seem to recall, he came back from the last spell of injury, didn't he, up at Anfield? Yeah. And he came on, and in that game it was sort of like, I wouldn't say night and day in terms of contrast between him on the pitch and him off the pitch. But certainly immediately it looked like, in terms of sort of attacking impetus, the team had a lot more confidence, a lot more direction. And I think he's definitely had a big impact in that final third, albeit not scoring the goals himself. I'm amazed to hear who's played that many games, in perfectly honest, because in my head I would have thought it was three or four of us, but that's a really good statistic. And I think we talked a lot in the past about players like Cameron Jerome, not doing enough because they didn't score, but he does, Wickham does do what we wanted Cameron Jerome to do. It's just he does bring other people into the game, he's a really good target man, he's very mobile, he really works the back four of the opposition, which again, it helps bring other players into the game. And his link up played like Street, he says, he's very good. So I'm more forgiven of Wickham not scoring goals than it would be in other players. I think he's real in the past. He's absent, so I don't think it has shown a light, second I said on this part, on the fact that he's the only striker in our squad that can play that role. No one else would come in and really be able to play it. I mean, you know, Shammers looks like his legs have gone to be perfectly honest. I mean, I just I don't think he's ever going to recover sufficiently from that injury. Obviously Patrick Bamford, regrettably, and very upsetting, he's now gone back to Chelsea, which is just quite devastating. And White Girl, you know, he had that game against United Way, apparently played the number nine role pretty well, I was aware of that particular one. But other than that, he's never looked particularly likely or able to be able to play that loan from role, man. You know, loan from man role, even. So now you I think it's a fairly, you know, it's one of two points. I would have said, I'd injured Shemak is would be the only person who comes close to him. And I know there'll be a lot of people listening to this now, again, Glenn Murray, Glenn Murray, but Wickham's a better player. Glenn Murray, ironically, might get you more goals, but I think Wickham's a better all-round forward plan, with a lot of potential, but it does highlight the fact that we are very short of a player like that now. I don't know how long he's been, I mean, the room is about, but Lassie, quite well, I mean, they're stretching him in from three weeks to two months. Yeah, Wickham sounds like it's a month, it's a part you've said. So then the big the big problem is, you know, we've got money, but the trouble is other clubs know we've got money. Do you go for a short term replacement, or do you think, well, we're fifth in the Premier League anyway, let's get through it and then see what happens in summer. I think it's an indication of how ambitious they want to be for the rest of the season, because I would have thought, I mean, it's time to go and buy, you know, they would just try, well, it's time to go and buy, we'd be desperately in need of goals to stay up, but it put something of this sort of interesting quandary to how much ambition they show. Well, we've had, we've had a lone spot freed up by Banford, cancelling his own loan, although I did see someone on Twitter earlier say, who's going to give us, now that we're fifth in the table, who's going to give us another loan? Well, I don't know if you know me, it's all going to give us anyway. No, it won't be very, if you were talking about getting low at Remian alone, you can't imagine why, well, Chelsea technically, the relegation rivals, but you can't imagine why he'd give a player like that to Villar alone, I don't know, we were linked with him in terms of a 10 million pound buy, but you're right, no one's going to, certainly none of the clubs from who you'd like to get players, you're going to lend this players you'd imagine, and if they do it, we play as a surplus to their own requirement, so, it's talk of the lad for Turin, Turino, Zarzal, Zarzal, he's a great name, well, we've got Zarzal, Horan Zarzal, that's going to be- Yeah, fantastic, thank you so much. But again, it's a good test of what the new owners want to do, say the new owners, new investors and not some new owners, what they want to do, whether they will just consolidate and see our way through, because we haven't, I mean, we've got to fifth without scoring that many goals. Exactly, and with the striker of the score of one, gold or season. Well, it's been something I've been banging on about, repeatedly, isn't it, that according to all the analytics and stats guys, we're overperforming, I mean, there's nothing wrong with that at all, you know, teams do sometimes overperform, let's say I'm what for our arguably also slightly overperforming, but the interesting thing I thought particularly in the Swansea game was just how the team looked quite tired and a bit that was based on the fact that they'd had to play two games in three days, which is frankly ridiculous, I know people go, they should be able to, but top level athletes need recovery time and not everyone's going to be able to swap in a excellent like for like replacements and you should just shouldn't be playing two games of football in 72 hours if you want to see decent level football. You used to play on Christmas day at boxing day. Yeah. Well, I know. As we learned on all of you. As we did learn and at that stage, we also had outhouse toilets and I guess I am saying that in the way that Christmas should still be playing on Christmas day, but I, you know, I don't think you should have that many games in that short space time that they certainly looked a little bit tired and, you know, I think so, it's just as fair as to the fans, Everton shouldn't be travelling to Newcastle on Boxing day night, either should they, let's be fair, just in terms of what their fans ever to travel, so you're right, in terms of the, it's a long trip for the Everton players, you know, getting fit for, I mean, it's part of, I'd hate to lose it because it's part of festive football, but they're bound to be, they're bound to be exhausted. And they could do it. They could swap that game somewhere else. Well, I think the difference, I mean, the difference is in the old days when they used to play on Christmas day at boxing day, the game was pretty much played at walking pace and they were, was now the intensity of every football match in the Premier League and it simply isn't like it in any other league in the world. It's just, you can't, the fans won't let you have a period of rest due in the game. You can't, and it's not like our football doesn't allow players to take two minutes off and just pass them all about and get their breath back, so it's played at 100 miles an hour. They'll never do it again 48 hours later. It's difficult, nothing also noticed, much as I'm a fan of Hangarland, just taking the lengthy out of the equation, changed a little bit more on certain at the back than I thought we had done. He struggled. Yeah, he did look like he had as much to drink out of the Christmas period as me in that game. He just got turned time and time and time, it almost had the hallmarks of a defender who knows he's losing his pace a little bit and then just desperately tries to always get in front of the man, just that bit too much because he doesn't know that if he's fine or if he's not recovered, when he's played a few months ago, when he's played a few months ago, he played really well against Swansea. That's quite a quick sort of turnaround, actually it's not because it's Hangarland, but from going from someone who's looked okay to that performance against Swansea. I think age catches us up with us all in the end, doesn't it, and there's a reason he's not being picked ahead of Delaney and Dan, and I think it's interesting, though, Kelly's, for all that we keep saying, Kelly's going to be sent about one day, nobody seems willing to take that risk with him at the moment and play him a cent about, so slightly worrying that Hangarland's sort of solution. I don't plan to hang around, doesn't it? I just think Hangarland's probably still doing a good job against, and he might, yeah, against the Glen Murray for that, or against Acosta maybe, but increasingly that sort of opposition is a few or far between Premier League, and he simply hasn't been able to adapt like, yeah, we know Delaney and Dan can defend against any sort of attacker and haven't done, but Hangarland, to me, just looks like somebody probably still doing a job in the championship, but to me, it's increasingly like an old-fashioned cent about who's just not comfortable with people playing the ball in front of him. Speaking of playing against slightly less mobile strikers, Murray did play for Bournemouth on Boxing Day, it was a really weird one, because he got cheered big time by the Palace fans before the game, saw in Gold's Palace, not that, and then he did a little dive in the first half, got a lot of stick, then started getting booed by the Palace fans first the game, and then went off to start up, he got cheered again, and we were, so it was a very sort of a pantomime and other thing, but I didn't know whether I was annoyed by his comments beforehand or not, because he said, I'm sure the paper's made the most of it, but he did say he was going to score against us, but then he wouldn't celebrate, so it's kind of like, well, it's not easy to say you're going to score against us, really, and then not celebrate, just keep your own council, it's basically what I would do. He doesn't have to say, I will score against you, he has to say, of course I will try my best to score against him, but you don't have to start going, I will score against you, but I don't worry, I won't, but my scenario has been falling up, like I dreamt and then he scores and we will cheer, but back to the original question, there's definitely an issue as to what we do about the injuries and replaces him, because I think, this time last week, I didn't think we'd get anybody in the transfer window, I didn't think we would need to or worry, I know Street, he thought we should, there's a couple of places where we needed backup, but I think we'll probably try and get two or three players in there, but again it's, because it's not a bad score, I mean, we seem to sort of contradict ourselves on this point quite a lot, because we've had quite a few times where we said actually our score is alright, and then several times like this one we've done, it's really good score, but it is alright, it's a good score, it is, but one more injury said about wise, we're in trouble, yeah, we're down to the bare-bound striker wise, it's a good score, but we still need a replacement left back, well it's the best squad that we've ever had, but the second string of that squad is probably a lower Premier League team, rather than the first 11 who are probably on our top eight team, and that difference is quite marked, it doesn't mean that there's a risk if, you know, Kebai gets suspended as he is, or MacArthur gets injured which, you know, he was blowing a little bit towards the end of the match against Swansea, hopefully he'll be fit for the next match, and he had to go off, but you know, there's quite a few positions where when you look at the guys who come in you go yeah you're okay for the Premier League, but you're probably not, you know, you're probably not that sort of top eight kind of quality, but we now have victims of our own success because we're playing so well this season, well it's going to be difficult to bring in sort of that many players of that particular level anyway, that throughout our consistent squad like to bring in 22 sort of top six type players is going to cost a lot of money, and b, be incredibly difficult to keep them all happy if you rotate them all around all the time, so I suppose you've got to take a little bit of risk with it with it anyway, I guess you just, you sometimes worry, don't you, because the first 11 does look so good, but I mean, although there's depth there, it's just not great in terms of the like for like replacements, the other thing is always, if you do go in for players like Remy, as we spent 10 million was the figure that some table was quoted, we spend now on a player that you're basically saying to, oh by the way you're only playing until a week comes back or until the last is back, I think it's going to be harder to sort of recruit on that basis anyway, unless he comes in and plays so well you can't replace him, but it's quite clear who part you first 11 is I think, and it's quite clear to anyone and come in and they probably wouldn't be part of it afterwards, so it's a kind of fine balance in them, but there again, but then maybe you should look at players like the great Birmingham's old, good players with potential that you might not have to pay as much money for that, you know might do a job short term and then we'd be happy to go into the squad and fight for the place that it's for the players that might want to sort of prove themselves, yeah, yeah, yeah, like a sack, like a Patrick Bamford, for example. Well, Bamford's such a strange one Bamford, because he's, I mean his apology seems sincere enough and everybody who speaks with the club says he's a perfectly nice young man and trains the world, but he has to know himself there's a reason he's not getting picked, but if he looks at himself and says this is a team with real striking troubles and I know they've lost two strikers, I'm still not getting picked, but I manage who sees him training every day, you kind of think it's got to be a hint there as to why they're not getting picked. Well partially the fact that the team's sick of the league, you know, it's going to be difficult, he's gone from a team that obviously they probably got a high calibre of player for being honest about it, but who have under performed while we probably a little bit over performed, and you can't expect to go on online from the team that's doing less well this season to where you've not got into the team, so a team that's now doing better than that. But when he joined us, he thought we were going to be a mid-table. Well yeah, but we've not, so he then has a real value right now, so he has to work with the fact that when he has come on, he hasn't done much, you know, he's never, he's not come on and we've all gone, oh, crack, he's unlucky, he should be getting a chance because we've all gone cheese, whether he's going to turn that to be the player we, so I've got a mate who's in the middle of the season to get older, just raved about him until the playoff final game and he thought, I think he's confident he's been shot by that, but just every week I keep saying to my brother, I mean, where is he, what he's done with Patrick Bamford because when he gets a chance he doesn't look, he runs about, he puts the effort in which he's great, it's what he's been, he doesn't look like a quality player, he doesn't look like a quality player. It's actually not just anything you've fitted either, certainly not into our system. He's not so no-go, but he's kind of like the best players, what kind of adapts can fit into our system, you shouldn't have to change the system to suit a player, a good player who will just play in a different way for it as long as it needs, you know. But if things have been much different, if he'd put that chance away, he'd still be here and he'd be matching in here and we'd all love him and, I don't think, no, I'll get the feeling he'd probably, I think he was going anyway, I think. Really? I still can't get to the bottom and if anybody at home listening knows this, because I still can't, the amount of rumours I've heard about the financial deal all you're supposed to be on, so the people say we were getting paid for not playing him, we were getting paid for playing him, we were paying him, they were paying us, that we paid him more of the less he played, it was so, I've got no idea what the financial deal was. Was it still from the hotbedded journalist, the integrity that's the Paulson's office? The Paulson's office and the couple other pubs, but even when I tried to ask people at the club quite rightly, they haven't told me, but there's no clear indication of, I don't know what sort of paid to play or paid to not play, I don't know, there's rumours that Chelsea were unhappy that he wasn't getting the look in, I don't really see why they would be bothered, because... He didn't come to us as a nice gesture in their park to help his career, they just offloading them wherever they can and presumably taking them off their way to go, but I don't think I think he could have scored a hat-trick in this one, he still wouldn't be here, I think he was clear that the writing was on the wall. I think essentially he's probably just a slightly posher to our gale, he'll work brilliantly in the championship as he falls in the fourth quarter, probably not as good of an issue, to our gale, but it works very effectively in that type of level of team, but unless he gets played in, I suppose, a Leicester or a Watford type system where they're incredibly direct and try to use the front-line like those two teams do, he's going to struggle because a lot of teams set out in a similar shape to Palace in the Premier League, and it means that then you've got to be a bit more like a Connor Wickham to be getting chances up front, as opposed to a Dwight Gell or a Patrick Van Vadoo who haven't got chances. Yeah, and he already used it, probably Gail and Bamford would work really well together. Yeah, probably, but a championship team because I think it's only Watford, Watford is sort of playing the 4-4-2, but only when doing it as a two-strike as a Watford just become two extra midfield players. And even then, they're very physical being here, that's your idea, what you got to do. And again, they're over-performing and doing very, very well. It's quite rare, isn't it, though, I don't think I've ever known before a player announcing his own ending of his loan deal. Well, I think the statement afterwards, I mean, it's got me the first time that I've ever seen someone accuse people of taking word out of context when the entirety of the words have been reproduced. I mean, I just don't know how you take that out of context, but it just freaked me if someone who realised that it was a bit of a mistake on his part, it was foolish, it was probably... Certainly. Certainly the moment, certainly in frustration that, one, having missed the very key chance, two, things having not gone particularly well, and three, the fans reacting, a tiny bit frustratingly to the manner in which that chance was missed towards the end of the game. So, just the combination of things, but I mean, he's probably realised that, you know, you don't want to be the type of player whose card gets marked in terms of other clubs by coming out and saying those sort of words publicly, particularly before you spoke into the manager by all accounts, and before you've informed the club at which you're on loan that you're returning, and when they've not indicated to you that they're about to invoke their right to terminate, you know, it just, it came across as a little bit immature and a little bit petchelin. Which is not like it, because everyone says he's an intelligent and likable member, clearly. Well, we all made mistakes, I suppose. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sure that there will now be people who will hardly graduate against them until they're deathbeds, which is, you know, some people won't even graduate against them. So, the school's the winning goal against Chelsea in the Champions League final. Exactly, yeah. But it's to be fair, it was already, I mean, again, it's when one of the recurring themes of the tweets we got on this pod, it was a fairly baffling recruitment in the first place. I'm quite sure why we got him, because we just got Wickham. We didn't seem, I mean, he seemed like a very similar player, and all this talk about what Chelsea said he had to play, he wasn't going to, if Wickham was fit. It was quite clear, as part of you clearly, clearly ranks Wickham above all the other strikers there. So, Bamford was always going to be a second-string, similar type player. So, it just seemed a little bit of business. Kind of the wrong person for the wrong club at the wrong time, I guess. Yeah, I think Mourinho, there might be a part of me, because I don't really, I really liked Paulis, and maybe he generally thought that Bamford would get at pitch time, play in time, but I don't think they thought he'd throw if there was the case, and Bamford must have surely realised quite a few games in that Wickham was out. He must have smelled a rat, the fact that even then he wasn't getting a chance. Well, okay. Well, it's a shame, though, because he would have been an option, you'd see, he still got that potential. It would be an option to have on the bench. Well, it's told that he might now go to Swansea in the past year, the last day or so, which would be... Well, he impressed the ninja. Well, yeah, I'm not. I'm not entirely sure what from. All right, okay. We're going to go. Let's talk closer to the book on a weird little, um, Paulis career for one player, but there you go. These things happen. Um, speaking of someone who had a long and good career of Paulis, I mean, I didn't think it was fantastic. Again, Swansea. Um... Yes, so I was told. Yeah. Yeah. It was, and that was, um, that was one of the, it wasn't fun was it particularly as a game, but that was one of the plus points that Jim made. It was always going to be one of those sort of games where because of the tiredness in the players and because they're planning it as a certain type of team who are a little bit long confidence and needed to grind out a result, we were probably going to have to go a little bit physical and try and grind it out as well. And again, we went with the same approach that we did against the similar passing team in Everton by playing, by further up the pitch, not to be a number 10, but just this wrapped higher up and then starting Gen. Now, I think realistically over the sort of next 18 months we're probably going to need a replacement for Gen NAC and that sort of slightly physical defensive midfielder role because there will be certain times when you need someone who has that physicality. And I wouldn't be surprised to see us bring in someone like Shelby who has the range of passing in addition to being slightly more physical and can play a little bit deep as he did at times for Swansea. Um, it was just more options. It was much injured on. It was much just dropped. Was he a couple of reasons? Well, he came on what she might have remembered after he came on, didn't he, of course. He had a way to against, because he came on against, or started against him. He played against Bournemouth and had a bit of a shocker, but it was actually pretty good when he came on against Swansea. We sort of saw both sides of much as game, really. I don't, I just still don't know what to make of him because it's just, I know what you're going to get with Ledley. You know he's going to break up play, he's going to keep the pass is simple and you're going to get a huge amount of running out of him. March, I mean, I like how he operates between the lines and some of the sort of close control and technique he shows at times is very good, but it just, it doesn't ever seem to quite grab the game by the scruff of the neck in the way that you kind of think he's perhaps able to, it always feels like it's something bubbling under the surface within that hasn't quite sort of sprung forth here and lots and lots of Palace fans don't seem to like in particularly much in terms of a player. Difficult when you are coming in like Bamford coming in now and then you're not really getting much of a... Well yeah, you're not getting enough time to get out to the sort of sharpness and speed of the game. So it's always going to be pretty difficult, but I mean I do think that he's capable probably of more than he's delivering so far. It was good to see Jedi about him, it does prove coming back to Bamford in a straight sort of way because we've, we've known from the past that there's all sorts of talk that Pargy wasn't in love with Jedi Knight when he first came in because Jedi Knight was away and then he was injured and he got sent off against West Hanwick wasn't it? No but he left that elbow and then got a retrospective fan for it. So but clearly Jedi Knight's worked his way back into the plan and it's, it's like Street says you suspect it might not be a long term thing but it is good to see him playing Premier League football and playing it well. I know it's been quite tough for the game for him saying there's no truth in the rumours that I'm leaving, I'm playing at Palace and I want to start. It just shows, I mean that's, it sort of highlights the banter thing because it's clear that Pargy is a fair manager who will give people a chance based on what he sees in training and as he did with Jedi Knight but not with that. And Jedi Knight came in and to be fair to, to get his chance. Yeah, yeah it was fantastic. He did check. It's, again that's great to have that option because again we're looking slightly light in that department if Jedi Knight was, I injured or not fit or injured or not fit. That's the double whammy. Same thing. He's injured or not fit. Well there we go. He's out. He's injured and he's not fit. And he's done a lot of work. I mean he's done a lot of work. It's just back to his best is what I'm saying is that if he was, he was injured or just not in full because there was a time when it looked like, getting whatever it says, it looked like the pace of the Premier League was just too much for him. No but there aren't games that he'll be able to. I think so. Yeah, I suspect that Andy says, I suspect that might be more of the way we're going to play football for the next few weeks. I think we're going to back to more of an early part of the league. Depends who you know. Depends who we're playing in. I think so. I think Pargy's shown throughout his tenure so far that he does tend to mix things up. Again, there's still some question marks in my head as to how much he's able to change games in game but certainly he'll change how he sets up for each game based upon the opposition he's done that a few times in recent weeks. I think he can change stuff in games but he hasn't got a lot to change with at the moment. The problem is no, you don't look at the bench ago and there's somebody completely different to solve the problem is that to the old sort of purest light for light days but I think he's capable of changing but I think already the Chelsea game I'll probably take a point from that now. I think so, yeah. And are they Neil Lads? Well, you can't. Well, that's no point saying it's out loud because it'll be a four-all draw but technically you'd think it's going to be a low scoring. Yeah, it probably will be a low scoring game. Had they kept Mourinho I think we might have fancied a bit more but you know, he did come in and studied the ship a bit. Oh yeah, we'll discuss that in the final part of the podcast. Just finally, we don't talk about referees too much on this pod but the ref on Saturday did seem to let a little Swansea get away with quite a lot of fouls and then brought a yellow for Cabay, for Palace's first foul of the game. He's now suspended after the game. And he just keeps on being repeatedly told to combine. JD and I were talking about whether or not, right, bear with me on this one and I'd shout it up with humour if you think it's terrible, I don't, but should there be a rule change whereby persistent fouling of one player by multiple players on the other side, eventually culminates in one of those players, having to take the flak the rest of their team and being booked. I thought you were going to say that to sort of line up the Palace team and they have to run down and get kicked out of the arse player. Back in the halftime challenge. But the thing is, because it's not uncommon, a good referee should be able to spot that that's happening. It should be out of spot that the three or four players are taking an opportunity and then he should talk to the other captain, he said, I know what you're doing, it's quite clear you're talking about it, it's quite clear you're talking about it and you deal with it that way. And you book the next one, it does the foul and you keep booking them. But the thing is, I think we're almost lifting, and I don't know whether it's, we're clearly a much better behaviour team towards referees than we have done in the past and I know we've been warned about that in the past, but I don't know whether it's part of you who thinks he's in line for the England job, so he wants his players to be conspicuously well behaved, but we don't moan at referees, we haven't got anyone out there nagging referees, we haven't got anyone refereeing the game, we haven't got anyone refereeing the game, we were good at that, but they're almost too nice now, and we're not sort of, I don't hate, I'm not saying dive it, let the referee know you've been fouled, sometimes, because we're quite a robust team, sometimes I think ref's just thinking, oh it's 50/50, look, I clearly don't know. That's the inconsistency that I found really quite frustrating from the ref on, who was it? I can't even remember. I think it was Swarbrick, Swarbrick. Right, okay, it was the fact that within three or four minutes, John J. Shelby, I do rate him things a fantastic player, but made a chance, it was just a clear nailed on Yellow Card, there was no doubt about it, I think it was, was it on Zaha or Swarbrick, but down the left hand side, nailed on Yellow Card every day, even if it's in the first five minutes, doesn't book him, and then yeah, books could buy much later on the match for just an incredibly innocuous fail, it's just that that's the sort of thing that gets immediately crowds onto referee's backs, that gets the players a bit more heads up, terms fairly innocuous games into tempestuous ones, you know, it's not surprising that when you see that sort of consistency, eventually the game becomes more and more feisty, and it did. Well the problem is because these are relatively inexperienced referee, they tend to referees for the assessor that they understand rather than, they make sure they do everything as they sit to the books, so they get a decent mark for the assessor, I've been worrying too much about game management, but you'd like to think that the assessor would be sent to him, why didn't he book Shelby, you let quite a lot go, and surely any referee, I mean they do their research, surely any referee would look at Palace's team and go right, we'll come by as the one player, they're going to be getting that, so let's keep, what's the heart? I worry about it as a heart, because I think referees, I don't know if they've got him down as a diver or cheat or whatever, but I don't think he's getting nearly enough protection from, he's just reacting a little bit, and he can't, no he shouldn't be reacting, but the, I don't know if you saw the one from the bottom of the game, Harry Carter went through the back of him, it was horrible, should have been a red card, he's only yellow, Wolf did react, but you know, yet again that's a chance of an example of another nasty challenge on Wolf, and a challenge clearly made to take, not take him out of the game, but you know, what I think, I think that's the difference, we've talked to that between Valacian and Wolf, because Wolf physically doesn't look that strong, Valacian stands up to challenges really well, I mean Valacian gets a buffet, because he's so strong and so fit and bulky, he doesn't go down as well, and Zahar is a bit of a throwback in terms of his weight, and he doesn't look, it's hard to tell from where we are, but he doesn't look as though he's that muscly or that bulky, so he's clearly, he gets hurt more easily than Valacian does. I think all his officers and players know that they can talk, because in the ballman game after that, Wolf was markedly much more quiet, they know they can do that, it's some games it won't, West Brom did not, West Brom did not, he responded with form, but some games they can do it to him, yeah, okay, well that's not a brilliant place to run part one on, but let's end it, nonetheless, in part two we've got questions from our listeners, so if you want us in a bit, welcome back to the five year plan podcast, last pod of 2015, sponsored by Vets printing for your printing body we need, go to vector.co.uk, and that's vector weather, and JCIS the Global Research and Brand Consultancy from South London, visit JC-IS.com, and that's JCIS weather, JC-IS. There you go, we try something different, right, question time, lots of questions this week from our listeners, I apologize, I can't read them all out, but they're off from good ones, starting with, they're all good ones, I can't, I'll just read them all now, the first one is from Ben Silverstein, he says, are the pundits wrong? Yes. Are the pundits wrong in completely taking us out of the title race? Well, that's a bit much to do, isn't it? How many points back we all, Lester, eight points, going into the new year, fifth in the table? I mean, in some ways I'm quite glad that we drew the last two games, because can you imagine how much power science would have been losing their shit, had we had four extra points, it would only have been four points back on the league leaders? Yeah. I just think that the going off the scale thing, going off the raid, flying off the handle, I'm mixing all my metaphors tonight. Yeah, I think there would have been some getting carried away going on. We are not, we are doing very well. I think for what it's worth, I'm quite glad that what for the Lester doing so well, because we're not getting a lot of attention just for being fifth, which I think I'm perfectly happy with that, as I think, I think it's fantastic. I think we're going to finish top half the table, and hopefully it's still fifth, sixth, you never know, but I don't, I think you just have to look at our squad and listen to the adjustments we had earlier about squad to see us winning the title, although if they're ever going to do it, this is a year to do it. Yeah. And it's a crazy only, but it's um, I don't think we're a title winning team. That's just not to say we can't. Well, why not? I don't think you're talking about Tottenham on Monday night, it's still winning, and you know, it's therefore we're a bit, you know, we should be in much better situation than many nights with it. It'll be, it'll be between us and Manchester City, we're being completely honest about it. It's great to see Palace in the position they're in at this time of the season, and you know, even if we have a little bit of a regression to the mean kind of thing where we underperform a tiny bit towards the end of the season, we'll still end on probably a record high points for the Premier League for Palace, and you'd think probably in the top sort of nine or eight, perhaps, which would still be a great, great achievement. Well, all we wanted was staying up again, it's all we wanted, and then we wanted a bit of progression, and that means finishing night for basically, but you know, a lot of us said at the time when we got promoted to the Premier League, oh, it's come too early, and you, you can never say that, and if we got, if we were to get into Europa League and who knows Champions League, it would be the most amazing thing, and you'd take that when it happens, but still, top half of the table would still be a brilliant achievement, it's just that we keep looking at what we've done in, and we should remember how dire things were this time, it's in the short space of time, this turnaround has been remarkable in the short space of time, so let's, while I win that, rather than go, as some football fans, we'll never be happy, they'll all be fans going, oh come on, we should be, you know, chon fans, for example, so we can't do the same as that, but we should just really be enjoying looking at the league table, and then don't worry about finishing higher until, there were quite some of your hand goodbye in the evening standard today, and the headline said, "Yohenbokkibai, believe Crystal Palace can finish an European spot." I mean, we never thought we'd ever be seeing that headline. He's obviously learned from Patrick Bamford, he'd be disappointed if he's answered to that question, what? Can't be daft? But it's great, isn't it? Of course it is, it's what you want, and let's not assume it's now right, and we're automatically, you know, because that's what did for Charlton again. Yeah, exactly. We've put ourselves in a position to be in contention for your league spot, like it's fantastic. And it's a great fun season, in terms of how, you know, unpredictable it's all been, as everyone's spoken about, our ad nauseum, and it's great fun to be talking about, perhaps even sort of fancifully as the type of content. But it would also be a great shame if it weren't not to happen, people were then disappointed, if we finished seven for eight, it'd be really annoying if people were disappointed with that rather than go, and it's just fantastic. Most sane pallet time. Well, if we don't win the league, I for one will be furious. Yeah, absolutely furious. Well, speaking of which, the next question is from Will Thomas. Hey, Will. Hi, Will. And Will says, "Farely average performances in the last three games, but five points from them, is this the sign of a team that can challenge top six?" Three, what was the other one? It was Everton before? No, it was a football move. Oh, no, we've stoked, away. I like that, yeah, fair enough, yeah, yeah. No, actually, that's a good point. I always say it's a sign of, I mean, that was the important thing, I think, on against Swansea, whatever there was. I love me, couldn't I? I know. Because, in times gone by, we would have lost that game, and the important thing was, if you can't, if you're not playing well, don't lose the game, first of all. So it's good to build an unbeaten run as well. Actually, yes, I think it's a good question, and I think it is a good sign that we're able to grind out results. I suppose being realistic, there aren't that many times, there aren't that many games we've actually come away going, "Will it brilliant for 90 minutes?" West Brom, probably, is the only one ever in a way to extend Newcastle, but Newcastle were in the bathroom case. Southampton, I thought. Southampton, we were very good, but a lot of our results have been down to tenacity and organisation, rather than... So that's the exciting thing, that we've still got that to come. But also kind of more flair to come, more goals to come. But, yeah, I think it is a good sign, and I think a lot of that is down low to down and delaying, and I think Pardu, I mean, it's really interesting the way he's praising down and delaying at the moment. I'm really pleased that he is, but it's quite clear that out of nowhere and unpredictably, they are probably the argument at the moment, the most efficient cent about pairing in the Premier League, and I don't think anybody would have said that this time last season, and I think it just shows just removing one of those, it sort of affects the way the team played, and it's quite clearly delaying in particular is a leader on the pitch, and I think we missed that, basically. So, again, it's always full circle, it comes back to that conversation, we had right at the start, so these are the times where they can be better. Yeah, I think a lot of performances recently in the games that we haven't played particularly well, we've got points that just more mature performances and more grown-up performances than we've seen in previous Premier League seasons. What do you mean by more grown-up performances? More mature, like being able to grind out a result when you can. Not taking chances the time we're going to go, but exactly. We don't make a lot of losing our head, not going to rest our moments, not getting players sent off, keep going and showing up as a team. Yeah, we don't make a lot of basic defensive errors. Yeah, we don't particularly, and it's very rare that you see, for example, one of the defence loser-man that they're marking at a corner or the sort of idiotic basic mistakes that you see sort of once a game from a Sunderland or 15 times a game from an Aston Villa, you just don't see that from Palace, and a lot of that will come from the offensive resoluteness that is still pervasive from the Pulis era, and a lot of it has been kept going by a party, whether because of Milan, or whether because of, you know, it party himself. There's just still a lot of defensive resoluteness to the thing. I think West Ham's first goal, there's a hard left-is-man. Kingston. Nothing, yeah, but I think part from that, even so hard has been pretty solid defensively, which, again, party has taken a lot of pains to it. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, there is an organisation there, there is a strength, and there is also a team spirit there as well. There's a resilience that's getting us points away perhaps we wouldn't have got them before. OK, next question is from Charles Bake. Hi, Charles. He's put a Charles Bake. Charles Bake. Great name. It's a great name for it, doesn't it? Apart from Patrick Bamford, obviously, which Palace players have had the most beautiful head it was this season? Ooh! Michael's question. She maxes a bit of a work of art, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, I know we come back to him time and time again. I don't know about work of art. It's more science than art, isn't it? I mean, just depends what sort of art you're talking about. It's just... Well, like a Jackson Pollock, isn't it? Yeah, I'll be conning from Pontier and more. Oh, God, do you think you're going to know that? I'm saying messy. Goodbye, it's got quite a bite here. Goodbye, it's like goodbye. There's a bit of a silky shing to his hand. Yeah, yeah. It's got down, it's got quite a sort of regulated... It's a sentimental garage style. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, good, goodbye. Good question, Charles. Um, let's question from Miles Lauden. Hi, Miles. Says, "Would we have the best all British starting 11 in a Premier League?" Oh, that's a good question. That's a really good question, yeah. Um, it's a great question. Who would you take out? You'd have to drop Blassie. Yeah. And you'd bring in... Ledley for goodbye. You'd put punctuation... Depends what your criteria is, because Blassie is... I mean, a place for Conga, but he's tall extents and purposes. Let's go with, if he plays for an... Oh, sorry, sorry, not. So, would Blassie have to go? Goodbye, would love to go. Swari'd have to go, but then you'd bring Kelly, would you? No, it's a lady who'd have to go. Delany would have to go? Yeah, he would. But then you'd have Marry Upper and Kelly at the back. Hennessy and Gold. You mean Marry Upper the... Oh, did you make him? Damn, he's... Erm... You'd have a real question. It's gone for a little bit. We'd have to go three at the back. Three at the back, yeah. You'd have to naturalise me like Jeddonack. Um... You'd have much... Am I as much as English, doesn't it? Yeah, you'd have much in number 10, Ernie. Punch and wides. So, I mean, uh... I think you were coming. We're coming up front, you got MacArthur. We're missing the defender. We need the defender. There must be someone in there somewhere. Well, Kelly... Kelly would go to the back. And then you need a left back. One of the... Well, Leslie could play left back. Yeah, and then we'd just put someone else in the middle. Have you got anyone left? I think we have. Is there anyone left in the squad? So we could do 10. We could do 10 out. We could do 10. Five aside, would be all right. Five aside, yeah. I think we'd have to go. Have we got... For... Silly Kai Kai. We could have him out wide. Yeah. Pushing. Punching into 10. We'd have to play much a bit deeper. It would be a very lazy midfield. But it wouldn't be... OK, it might not be... It might not be a bit of one of the best British 11s. But we've certainly got a very sort of British feel to our team. Someone's sending me the party with making a contentious effort to sign more British players. It's really concerted. What does I say? A contentious effort. Guy in a punching giant lady in the face. I'm learning you want to do that. Something that's contentious. Well, that made me the case, because I know it's quite interesting, because Pardew does hint that... Oh, the tool, yeah, when they bought so many French players into Newcastle. Pardew's been dropping a lot of hints and that wasn't his policy or his plan, and that didn't make for the happiest dressing room. But I'd be interested to find out whether it was an actual concerted policy on his part. I mean, I'm sure there are some managers like Aladise who made it claim they'd rather work with good old-fashioned British players. Well, Cudus is very much like that. And he's effectively a legacy of his time there. Certainly some of the... Hennessy was brought in by him, ledly brought in by him. I can't remember any others brought in by him. Punching, permanently under him. So, they were quite few that ended up effectively being signed on Pardew's watch, and those players, a lot of them, have performed very well over the period since. So, I'm not entirely surprised. Well, also, you could understand why Pardew's would want to do that in a way, because his football was a particularly old-fashioned British style of football that you'd imagine it would be harder, even for central defenders coming in, for other cultures simply haven't been brought up to ever play that sort of football, are they, really? So, much easier for Pules to... And the tradition we were in in the club as well, maybe needed a different sort of style. We've only got to look at Otamendi and Mangala at Man City. This is the see-how players who've not sort of had enough exposure to the English pace of game, and to the fact that mistakes have punished in a sort of microsecond, end up struggling a little bit. And, you know, it's why it's some big risk bringing in centre-backs from abroad. Not because they can't adapt, because they clearly can. You know, Vincent Company, when he's fit, is still the best centre-back in a league, by an absolute country mile. Of course, he only has a country on that. It's been fantastic for Arsenal, but they're a numerous murder sack who's done pretty well for Arsenal as well, this year and season. So, there's plenty that do come in, but it's still a bit of a risk, and if you're a team of palaces means, probably end up not taking that particular chance, because there are plenty of... Well, also, we're unusual in that we took a charge. Our dad and Delaney came out of low league football. Yeah. And most clubs probably wouldn't take that risk, simply because of the pace of the game in the Premier League. You could argue, possibly, Swari, was a bit of a gamble in that hadn't played it before, and a bit of a slow start, but it's clearly maturing into a very good left-back, and improving most games. Good question. Next one's from Jimmy King. Oh, hi, Jimmy. It says, "Who would win an arm wrestle between J.D. and Street, and who would win a thumb war between Kevin and James Endicott?" Well, I would clearly win the arm wrestle with J.D. What did you talk about? I've been going to the gym. Well, it literally looks like he's got a pee-uppy sleeve look. Yeah, that's really impressive. That's officially a muscle. What have you been doing at the gym? I'm just hanging out. Officially a muscle. Sitting on footballs. I think I'll give you a go. As Endicott and I would lock thumbs and then look at each other's eyes and realise that fighting was foolish, and then start to all that. David Bowie, circa 1975, and wallowing our own happy nostalgia. Or as I call it, the FYP podcast. Okay, good question. The next question comes from Chris K. Oh, my Chris. He says, "What should palaces New Year's resolution be?" Win the league. That'd be pretty good, wouldn't it? Onwards and upwards. Sign some new players of some sort. I wouldn't say it's a resolution because they probably do that most years. You know, it's not like a... Help more Grammys across the street. I think... Do more charity work. Do you want to work out those club? There's a lot of charity work. I would say do more to, and they are working on this, on and off the pitch, to act more like a Premier League team. Be a Premier League team on and off the pitch. It's something that Steve's talked about as an example. The new stadium. Oh, stuff like that. The infrastructure, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I just, I don't know, just believing, taking that next step towards being a proper Premier League team, which we're doing on the pitch. I think they're doing... I mean, they're fairly aware of... Yeah. I'm just going myself to... Steve Barrott has told us in the past, so... Yes. I heard this very good interview. I haven't heard it yet, but I'm just told by several people. I would like them to... Yeah, it was a good interview. Yeah, it was, it was a good book. I would like them to reproduce the entirety of the inside of the porcelain's arms, inside the homestead at one end, so that when I go for a beer at half time, it feels like I'm having a beer inside the porcelain's arms. It feels like I would've had that long. Well, that's a good idea. But then that wouldn't make the porcelain's arms so special. No, that's true. Well, no, because it means I'd be in the porcelain's arms for longer. I would like them to, they confusing me now. I would like them to bring back Clarion and Lightly Stripes. They've been asking for that since 1967. We had a question last week about the part of your favourite kit, which I didn't get around to reading out, and they'd put in brackets at the end. I know Kevin's going to say. Kevin's going to say it. No, the one with the yellow, in particular, the one with the yellow... The 69 Steve Camber is a classic. Right, last couple of questions for 2015. First one's from Trevor Weldon. Hi, Trevor. He says, "I haven't heard a game of reputation of, quote, unquote, not putting in a shift. Can you think of any players who were successful at Palace without working hard?" Oh, I tell you, it was quite lazy. And did just about OK until he got a new contract. Mark O'Rike. He went in and said he was successful at Palace. Well, no, because we've never had a player. He's been mercurial enough to be that great to also succeed at Palace while being very, very lazy that I can think of. Well, not in, not since... I could offer you one name. It's a bit debatable. Older people know who I'm going to say here and it's Jerry Murphy. It was the laziest player I've ever seen in my life. Are you getting paid for the number of times you mentioned Jerry Murphy? But he was very close. When he could be asked, he was fantastic. I don't think he would have come up to stats. He wouldn't have even registered. Basically, he could spend most of the game under the same umbrella. He didn't, he wasn't one for running about, but he was still one of the best passes of what I've seen at Palace. But I think it's impossible these days. You can't have one about the other any more. I think most clubs won't rate it. You can't carry passengers anymore. I think Glenn Hodel was probably the last one where you could arguably say internationally, don't worry about tackling the work, because every player now has to do so much defensively. They've got to be so well-drilled, organisationally. And again, it's quicker and faster and stronger. Yeah, you can't. I mean, I don't necessarily think it's a brilliant thing, but you... Can I offer you one name? I'm not saying he was lazy, but certainly a player who maybe didn't quite get into the swing of games, and sometimes would do a brilliant thing to change it. Don't you, Friedman? Well, I don't know, he would want to win 2015. Yeah, it's not yet. It's brilliant. He's throwing a bucket of war at my face. So, I'm mentioning that. I thought you were going to say Moritz. Moritz? Yeah, but I'm not talking about players who were successful. Very good successful. I think Doug, he's probably coming the closest to I reckon. And even there, you know, you're still one who was young, going round around a little bit. Yeah, still a game changer. Anyway, interesting question. Right, a couple more. I should have read this one out a minute ago. I apologise. Martin Patrick. Hi, Martin. Hi, Martin. And said to us, do the panel, that's us, have... More of a triangle size. Do the panel have any New Year's resolutions, palace-related or not? I should have asked that after the last New Year's one. What are you guys planning on doing next year? Probably leaves the pub a bit... A bit further away from kickoff time than I have. There may be... Yeah, but it was Christmas. No, no, it's true, it was Christmas, yes. Yeah, that's... I don't know. That's a good question. Get another palace garden home? I don't know. I like how he says, he's sort of tight. Well, it's not a lot I can do. I mean, there's not a lot I can affect at the club. Really, is it? I'll tell you one more. My New Year's resolution will be to find the one Palace fan who's lucky, Max Day routine is the one that works. That's a great idea. And basically cover him or her in Cotton Wall and make sure they do that routine. Because it's got me one of us. Yeah. If we could do a scientific experiment as to the correct, lucky way to walk up the bloody hole and then... I've been wearing... How many open fruits to have? I've been wearing the same outfit last few games. Same jacket, same pallet shirt, same shirt underneath. Or two of your new doors in there. Well, I'll be in in seven or six. Yeah, that's fair enough, yeah. So, I'll keep doing that. What's your New Year's resolution, Andy? Probably to watch Palace in the Euro qualifies in Turkmenistan when we find the match to scrape into sick than last time to see. We can do a podcast from there. Well, from Turkmenistan. Well, I think that'd be great fun. Let's not go. It'll be like the Palace tattoo. We'll make some rash promise. We'll see whatever the draw is. We're going to go. And it'll end up with us trekking to Azerbaijan and having to eat James Endicott. It'll be like the Alksberg friendly over the mountain. Basically, we'll die on a mountain somewhere and eat Endicott. That's what keep us going. Keep us going. [LAUGHTER] That's what the season starts again. But we'll make a promise. And then we won't keep... Yeah, we used to mention the tattoo because we now are going to make a game. Don't be free from people. I probably shouldn't have done that. OK, final question then. OK. The final question of 2015 goes to Peter Hostakny. I like Peter, Peter. And he says, "What was Palace's best moment in 2015?" Sign in, Patrick Bamford? Probably not up there. It's got to be surely. Personally, I would go with the winner Chelsea. I know that they subsequently spiral into sort of massive turmoil in crisis, which was delightful. But up to that point, it felt like such sort of a... There's such a lotion of beating them at Stanford Bridge and being one of the first things in our long, long world to beat a Mourinho team at Stanford Bridge. And not to cause the start of the decline because there were obviously other factors. But it did feel a little bit like we'd started them on their way to their eventual descent. So that was, I think, quite a special moment for this year. I think... I think, really, Stephen Jarrell's last game... Yeah, that's a good one. But I think... I think it's probably... The last is Hatricket. Some sort of... Yeah, that was... 'Cause that just went... That little burst of football. 'Cause I think that was the first real time when you thought, "Oh, something's happening here." Something really good's happening here. Everyone started to really sort of sit up and take notes about what we can do as a team. But the beauty of that question is that, for the first time in many, many years, there's a lot of answers to it. Yeah, exactly. 'Cause we would have been here three or four seasons ago. He'd been struggling to find any answers. And the answer would eventually be staying up or not going backwards, basically. But I didn't load a good moment. What would yours be then? And to be honest, there's been so many good moments. A bit involved in... No, it was the time I was on Palace Fan TV, doing another selfie Snapchat thing. When Steve Parrish did, that's a good question, yeah. I would say he didn't say it. I would say he did to me. To be honest, probably ending 2015, fifth in the Premier League, a year after starting it in the relegation zone. Yeah. Probably a good one. But you're right, that has been so many good moments of season. Would you say that 2015 is Palace is, as a club, best ever, year, calendar year? Yeah, I think you'd have to. Yeah, it just feels so much has happened in social time. It's kind of hard to get to grips with it. It feels, and we have to this forward, just staying up on the purest, still had a sort of tinge of excitement about it that we've never quite replaced, basically, because it seems so unlikely. And, you know, a party thing just seemed to slide into play straight away with the purest thing took a while to kick in. And at the end of that season, it just felt like a brilliant cup run, like the Fulham game was just still one of the best away against what you can remember from it. Well, yeah, but that whole trip was still up. So that was a really, almost more special sort of run of games. But yeah, this has been our best year, and it's still-- I think so, yeah. It's still coming, having to pinch yourself really to realise, but you look at the league table with your laugh, because you kind of go, "That's--" And also, we're on the cusp of, you know, next year, could be even better, it could be an even better year, really. It could be, but, yeah, I think the experience might not be. Experience of Palace indicates that it might not be. But that's what I'm saying about. I think we should say that what's happening now. That's what I'm saying about being an all-premially-- acting like a more-premially team, you know, believing the next season could be even-- 2016 could be even better than 2015. Oh, no, I think it can be, but I think, again, it comes back to-- it's a brilliant argument for fans as well. I think it splits on age groups, because you wanted to continue, but you still wanted to continue with players like Delaney and Dan, you never want to be one of those clubs where every two seasons, you've got a completely different starting level. It's the land Jerry Murphy player in my arms. If Don Rogers was still able to try that, I'd have Don Rogers trying that. Which, you know what I mean, you still want to keep, because we are-- we're a Premier League team, but we've still got that nucleus of some of the-- quite a few of the championship players. And we've still got that attitude as well. So I don't want Palace to ever lose that sort of cocky South London attitude, that they talk about our players having an attitude. And we have, and it's clearly, there's a very good atmosphere amongst the players. Do you feel like we've pied you at the helm and we've perished at the helm in South London? Yeah, I think we could put that. I hope so, yeah. I mean, you worry, is that the Americans might start saying, well, that's, you know, why haven't we got a quarterback or get some flaccid and foreign player and then we know the name of, do you know what I mean? Yeah. You want to keep that attitude. You want to stay a South London team. You want to be part of your community. That be that sort of football, you don't ever, you know, and that's what, that's where Charlton made the big mistake. Because, you know, the Charlton started believing that in their own myth, in a way, Charlton fans started demanding European football. Well, both of them, both of them. Yeah, and then, because they were in the situation that we were, they'd do possibly overachieving. So it feels like we're doing things the right way. I think we are, I think we are. I think it is exciting. It has been a fantastic year, I doubt. Andy, would you say it's our best ever year as a club? Well, right now, you'll have a lot of people probably between the age of about 33 and 60, perhaps, shouting at their podcast device, go, "No, 1990!" But I think you'd have to say, 2015, probably, you know, just objectively, you know, highest ever league finish, most number of points in a calendar. I'm not really a fan of that whole calendar year. Yeah, we are at the end of this. I mean, if we were going to run the season by calendar year, we'd do that. So it seems a little bit false. Because we're at the end of our lives. We're at the end of our lives. Yeah, exactly, which is what I'm trying to do. So, just finish. Yes, yes, I would say it is. OK. Listeners, thank you very much for your questions. Happy New Year to our listeners. We haven't finished the pod. We'll do it at the end of the pod. Great questions, apologies to the ones I couldn't read out, but thank you for sending them in. And please keep doing that next year. Part three is going to be our new feature in this week. So, do you want us in a bit? Welcome back to part three of the five-year plan podcast sponsored by JCIS, the global research and brand consultancy from South London. Visit JC-IS.com and vector printing. Your print and embroidery needs. Sorry, vector printing. For all your print and embroidery needs, go to vector.co.uk. And that's vector weather? OK. OK. What if I only wanted to do some of my embroidery needs? You can do-- they'll do anything. They'll do some or all of your embroidery needs. Can you promise me, just as a little treat for 2016, that you'll do a tape of all your fake beginnings? No, we've deleted most of them. Because it sounds so slick. It'd be just lovely for the people at home to hear. Why, it's really late. Well, it's really late. When you kick off the car. No, that's the magic of a podcast. OK, so this is our feature in this week where we look back at some things that happened over the next few days, back in time. We're going to, first of all, go back to 1997. Tuesday, the 31st of December. Why was Palace's New Year's Day fixture against Stoke called off? Snow? Oh, was it sort of in the right area? It's sort of in the right area. The pitch was frozen. Oh, there we go. The pitch was frozen. The trouble, quite often, the pitch was all right. But the actual terraces would freeze. OK. And the police wouldn't let-- for safety reasons, they wouldn't let people into the ground. Because it's just really-- because it'd be an open terrace on that. Yeah. On the soil, eating. Well, that's fair enough, yeah. OK. So the whole place was cold. I think in '97. We had the stamp on it. We had the stamp on it. But it's interesting. I never thought of that. Actually, it's good. What the games could be called off because of ice? Yeah, for the fans. I think we've had games called off before, where they've been called off on safety grounds that the streets around us don't know if there would have been ice in over. There was waterings about it. In fact, it was a boxing day game, I think, it was cancelled about 40 minutes before the actual game. Knowledge was cancelled, I think, because of "Frozen Pitch" and all that. And Darren Huckabee then tweeted, what a two-bulb club palisaur, and was then met with a barrage of online abuse and palace fans. Well done, palis fans. So in the festive cheer. OK. So four tweaks, wasn't it? No, no, I was having a few seasons. Oh, he was, of course, he was, yeah. We now go to the first of January, 1966. Oh, this year, Kev? Who made their league debut for palis against Bristol City aged just 17 years old and 24 days. Is it someone very obscure, or is it someone playing as-- Steve Kemba. Steve Kemba, yeah. So not obscure at all, absolutely. Steve Kemba, making him the fifth youngest player to a pair for palisaur. Well, you talk about palis fans. Steve Kemba, who was a big idol, and then went to Chelsea, who he played not long afterwards. And for some reason, Steve Kemba thought he'd come out on his own front of the other Chelsea players in his Chelsea kit, thinking that he'd get a nice welcome from-- and he was wrong. [LAUGHTER] He was very wrong. And for a small child like me, he was a bit of an eye-opener. He was a great player for a long time. Barely, what he tells me. David Payne was in the Porsche as long as he ever did. It was. Yeah, that's because his son drinks in there. Oh, it's not too old. Yeah, he's a very nice guy, David Payne. Yeah, he is a very nice guy. It's lovely. OK, Steve Kemba. I mean, I introduced him to my dad at the beer festival, and then left him to it as a both a bit deaf. So it's like sick, cold, but 10 minutes of translating at the end of my day. He was at bloke. Jerry Murphy, dad. So is David Payne? I don't remember him. Right. Dad, he played in games you were at? He played a lot of games, palis. He did. He played in the mode you got, didn't he? He was a bit of a sort of James McArthur, his day, really, sort of a defensive and fielder, and sort of round the road. He was right back as well. But sort of defensive and field player, but very versatile. He's a very nice guy. He used to like from it. This is a good one. OK, Friday 2nd of January, 1981. This is obviously I'm reading out of Neil McStein's excellent on this day, because I've got to put the book. He says, "The day before a crucial F.A. Cop tireway to Man City, Malcolm Anderson failed to show for the coach journey up north. The players hadn't seen him all week and were astonished when they saw the gaffer for the first time in the next day on football focus explaining how palis were going to win the game. Needless to say, Alison picked a strange looking team that lost 4-0. So there you go. That sounds about right. You wouldn't get that. It's funny. My dad, we just mentioned, he's still-- I know he's with the day, so what I mean. Yeah, but we got relegated two seasons. He's running the pleasure for it. Yeah, but he changed the kit. He had a nickname in the bar for that girl, like, yeah. I put palis on the map, didn't he? Yeah, but we did end up in the third division. And then he didn't turn out for a week at work. I know another Alison-related one from Saturday, 3rd of January, 1976. Palace beat Scarborough 2-1 to set up a couple of leads to start that cup run. What did Alison do that day for the first time? Wear a fedora, yes, he wore a fedora to keep the sun out of his eyes. And also, because I had the pleasure of interviewing him not long before he to come to the outside of us. And he's very funny, very, very, still never a charismatic person, but I did ask him whether he was aware of the fact that him walking around the picture places like Leeds and Sunderland doubled the chances of us getting the shit kicked out of us. Because they hated companies already without once or some flash bugger walking around the picture. A fedora telling them what a fedora's got to be. Oh, we're all huddled in the corner of some northern terrace. No, don't do that, mate. These are the frank coincidence as it is. You were winding them up. And he thought that was very funny, but it was-- Because I mean, that was a fantastic time to be a palace fan. Because we were pretty obscure club, really. I mean, we were sort of backwater on a club, and for him to sort of get us a publicity, he did Albeit, well, relegating us twice. It was a fantastic time. That cup run was just-- Do you think party doesn't matter for Doris, but he got a bit of the Alison swagger about him a little bit? I think it was one of the reasons the players like Purdue. There's a clearly do. There's a bit of their alpha male about him. There's a bit of that dresses properly, dresses like the players, drives a flashcard. Malcolm Allison was very much one of the boys would go out drinking with them all disappearing and turn up football focus. I think there is an element of that with Purdue. I mean, Purdue's focus is very much the players always, rather than the club itself, if you see what I mean. And I think Purdue worries too much about making friends actually in the club, as long as the players are behind him, which they clearly are at a nice, clumsy place, well, at least for a certain time. But there is a sort of element of that. Although, Purdue, I think, is definitely making an effort to raid himself in on the top side, which I think again goes back to that. I think Purdue's my presence. Again, I think goes back to him wanting the England job. Do you think Purdue could carry off a fedor? Oh, I think he'd like to think he could carry off a fedor without him. He probably could, just about anything. Oh, just I'm not sure anyone can put off a fedor these days. I listened, dude. We have a different area. What's the different area I had to go? OK, I think so. It's good. I guarantee the club shop, reptical fedoras, would be better than club shop, reptical fedoras. There's pretty much cardboard for those days. I think if any manager in the perimeter could, it would be Pardew. OK, final memory then in this week goes Saturday 3rd of January, 1942. Oh. So-- This was UCF. Another time we got to say that. I reeled back on that. I think I was in the tube station. In the pours and thongs. I was in the bomb shelter at the pours and thongs. OK, I think you guys are going to like that fire. I was like, oh, I call it the back room. Hasn't changed up yet in the hot dog. OK, so 3rd of January, 1942. Palace revived memories of the 10-year-old thrashing they handed out to Brighton in April 1940 by, again, sticking another 10 past South Coast arrivals. The Palace being brought in 10-year-old twice. In a London League wartime fixture, I saw that. So there you go, 10-year-old twice in two years. Unfortunately, they don't, for some reason, they don't count properly in the stats today, because a lot of the players we're visiting players. Well, I guess they were guessing you were there, yeah. People who were soldiers who were stationed nearby would turn out for them. So they don't use you count those in the stats. But I didn't know we'd be in Brighton in any circumstance. We should be known about being Brighton 10-year-old. Well, it's official to us. Wow. I want a banner. I want a banner. Because we did win one of those wartime leagues as well. Again, you don't have to put that in your typical palace. I know, basically. Yeah, we did. We won a walk totally. Speaking of Palace nostalgia, obviously, Tony Fletcher's book about-- boy about town, which is all about Palace and the music and everything. There's a fantastic book that people should record. He released a new bonus chapter recently for his book, which is about going to see Palace Millwall back in the '70s, which is quite an entertaining read. So available on his website, which believes Tony Fletcher.net. Good stuff. So definitely worth a read. Very entertaining. You could never understand with Millwall fans. We looked like them. We talked like them, but somehow they just knew-- Speak for yourself. They just knew we weren't-- Well, obviously, you should-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] Obviously, you need to bridge over there. But I think-- I don't know, it's because they're a close match to what it looks like a hair hadn't been cut with an axe. But they just knew-- you wouldn't have a scarf or you wouldn't dare. But they just somehow knew you weren't one of their own. Good, OK, right, that wraps up in this week for 2015. Part 4, we're going to look forward to the visit of Chelsea. So do you want us to know that? [MUSIC PLAYING] Welcome back to the final FIP podcast of 2050. Oh, yeah. Sponsored by JCIS, the global research and brand consultancy from South London. Visit JC-IS.com. And vector printing for all your print and embroidery needs, print or embroidery needs, depending on what you want. Go to vector.co.uk and let's vector with her. JC, OK. Good. OK, so the final part of this week's pod then is our preview. Chelsea at home on Sunday, the early kickoff on TV. If they still had hoes, they would you feel a bit more confident about this one? Yes. Probably. I mean, that's a good question. It depends whether they might have had a revival under him and won the last three games. But yes, you probably would feel a bit more confident with how he seems to have quite liked, giving us points. He does. He likes pilots. He seems to like pilots. But having said that, the two results, since, haven't been-- they're clearly working their way back towards being more efficient team. But you know, you know, it's a good result. But technically, you shouldn't be really be worrying about a team that drew with what for their home. Or a team that's 16 from the team? Yeah, but of course, the players. I'd be happier if I knew Delaney was back. That would be much happier. But I think a point-- I'd say, as I said before, I would take a point now. But clearly, some of their players are much better than they've been playing. And if they turn up, then no. Yeah, and they should be slightly ashamed of themselves. Because, yeah, it's the most frustrating thing for the fan of any club when you see good players. Clearly, not playing, and clearly-- I've enjoyed it, if I'm honest. Well, no, but just in terms of looking at it, just passionate, they're highly paid. They shouldn't be going on a strike in front of their own fans. Basically, it's really annoying when suddenly all it takes is one new manager comes in and doesn't change the thing. And then they simply start playing better again, because they stop soaking. But I mean, they've got very good players. But they're only working their way back towards. And the fact is, yeah, we beat them. We beat them well at Stanford Bridge. And they're not that much better. And I don't think Costa would be looking forward to playing against Delaney again, because Delaney was outstanding against it. At Stanford Bridge, it's just-- I can't see how score-- just seeing a struggle for goals. That's the thing. I mean, it's just a problem. Let's hope Delaney is back. But we are going to be without Wickham and without Balassie. And obviously, there's no Bamford now. How would you-- Well, he wouldn't have been able to play-- He wouldn't be able to-- of course, yeah. He wouldn't be able to play. How would you guys line up? Would you start with Shamak or-- I don't think you'd be fit. I don't think Shamak. What would you guys do? I think maybe possibly Carl-- least Campbell's got that bit of mobility and a bit of devil about him. And again, it depends on who they start with. It's sent back. But they've got a lack of pace in their back four. And the lack of confidence as well, I think. I think just Campbell's energy-- He did score against him, I think, last season at home, I think, didn't he? Lost 2-1, I think he got my goal. He lost 2-1, but that didn't tell the story. No, yeah. Should they pass this off the pitch? Yeah. But I just think-- I agree with Streety earlier, and I just think Shamak-- I don't know if it's permanent, but he's a long way from being the player that we know he can be. You see it in bits, though, don't you? He's a nice, sexy stuff against him, honestly. Yeah, it's a difficult one for Parge. It's difficult. I don't know whether Parge will try not to lose today. Rather than go up to with it. But I suspect Jeddonack will-- well, I mean, that could buy as well. That's another tricky one, as well. I think he'll probably go with Sackart front. Oh, Sackart, what do you think? Is he fit? I thought he was-- No, it's not fit. I thought it was due to that one or not. The other two weeks, aren't they? No. Oh, well, we've got no one left. No, no. No one left. Silly come on. I'm going up front on his own. Do I go with him as well? Do I go with him as well? Do I go with him as well? This is not good. No. So Lee could start. I mean, Lee could make a good form. He just had a baby, so he'd be happy. And he's got that fantastic goals. He arguably had a goal of the season already. I honestly don't know. It's going to be alone. I mean, punching is obviously-- but I don't know what he'll do. You'd guess it'd be McArthur and Jeddonack. There's the two midfield players in front of-- Yeah. --then maybe much in front of that. I don't know. Having said that, they'd transfer when they would have been open for two days. Do you think we'd ever get an emergency loaning or something, or I don't know? We ask voting for someone up front. I think that's really unlikely to be perfectly honest, but never know what to expect. I don't know, maybe punch. Maybe punch. It's an argument we've had before. We've always tried punching his own up front, giving him a bit more responsibility. He does seem to thrive in responsibility. But he would better get on against ones either. Well, I think we've combined not being there. Because I think we've all said that punch just hasn't been quite the same player when could buy his own. I think he likes to have that bit of responsibility. He likes to be the playmaker. He likes to be the creative one. So maybe he's like, I don't know. But he'll certainly starve. But then looking at the bench, I don't know what-- Don't know. He'll see some youngsters on the bench. Well, he certainly see Lee on the bench, I imagine. Yeah. Much would be on there. It's not ideal, is it? It's very short-staffed. Short-staffed. It's not ideal, but he's still-- these are circumstances in which you wouldn't bear against Palace. I mean, because, again, we just have to dig deep into those-- what we talk about earlier-- commitment and spirit and energy. And the atmosphere is going to be fantastic, I imagine. And it's up to somebody else. And again, the thing is we can always set pieces still. It could be that Dan gets the winning goal, but we've got goals in this, but just not in our strikers. We haven't, but-- So there's a horror start. The punches start. Campbell's start. That's still quite-- I mean, it's quite-- Don't forget, we'll definitely give him a game. There's a lot of hope that we give him a game. It'll be close to the last home game we played against him. Well, that's-- there's two things that we need to really rectify to make me start believing that we're a really, really good team. Beaten Arsenal was one of them. And then-- because we'd-- I would beat Chelsea and Sellers with the young girl, but that was an element of luck. So I think playing Chelsea off the pitch to Sellers Park and being Arsenal were the two things that-- Hey, they could both happen. They could, yeah. But we're going-- yeah, we're going into a game nobody would have predicted at the start of the season that this fixture, the team that beat fifth would be us, maybe sixteenths. And they won't look forward to going to Sellers Park. Simple as that. Probably wouldn't even thought Chelsea would be in fifth, to be honest. No, no, you wouldn't be surprised if you'd have been surprised at their only fifth, yeah, exactly. Good stuff. Well, and also, it was signal-- the start of a new year and the end of what's been a very good year for Palace. Well, it won't be the end of a very good year. Start of a new year. It was signal-- It was a massive swansing signal. It was a massive improvement in one year. Yeah, we started last year in the bottom three, so-- Oh, it's been fantastic. It's been a great year. It's been a great year for the podium for our listeners. Yeah, well, I think we wish our listeners a happy new year. Of course we do. Yeah. Have a new year. Set the one who said our talk's too much. Well-- That was me. That could be your new-- That could be your new resolution. Happy new year listeners. Have a short podcast of it is. [LAUGHTER] All right, we'll see who joins me in 2016. [LAUGHTER] But thank you very much for listening and for your questions. Have a wonderful New Year's Eve, whatever you choose to do, and all the best for the new year. And to Palace as well, I've got a feeling that 2016 will be even better than 2015. Oh, bless us everyone. There you go. Good. Kevin and Andy, thank you very much for-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] Happy new year. Happy new year to two of you. And-- Happy new year to you too, Joe Doo. Thank you very much. Cheers. Thank you. Wherever you spend it at home watching TV. And in bed by 12/30. Happy new year, everyone. And you have must in 2016. Goodbye. Bye. Bye. [MUSIC PLAYING] Hey, it's Jesse Kelly. Ronald Reagan famously once said, the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help. Americans are losing faith in the banking system. And at the same time, the US government could soon be headed toward a centralized banking system. How scary is that? How do you protect yourself as the government gets more involved in your life? For me, owning gold is one way. Having gold that I can see and touch makes me feel protected. Having a portion of your retirement in precious metals is another way to feel protected. I don't own crypto. I don't own NFTs. And I don't buy meme stocks. I don't invest in things I don't understand. If you are like me and want to feel safe, it's time to call my friends at the Oxford Gold Group. Go to www.oxfordgoldgroup.com to learn more. Again, that's www.oxfordgoldgroup.com. [CHEERING] This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Should old acquaintance be forgot? No of course not, because the FYP Podcast is back for its last outing of 2015. It's been a great year for Palace, which Kevin, JD and Andy look back on, including a review of the scoreless draws against Bournemouth and Swansea. Happy New Year listeners and thanks for listening in 2015. Here's to another year of podding!
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